“The marine corps’ basic principles helped shape the life I lead today,” said Nicholas Theodore, director of the Johns Hopkins Neurological Spine Cen­ter and a former senior general medical officer with the U.S. Marine Corps. As the featured speaker at The Johns Hopkins Hospital’s Veterans Day Com­memoration on Nov. 10, he shared that although his father, uncles and grandfa­ther were all war veterans, he joined the military not because of family tradition, but because of his desire to serve his country.

Kamala Stevenson, an Army veteran and occupational therapist at Johns Hopkins Bayview Medical Center, kicked off the ceremony by recognizing each of the seven branches of the uni­formed services, which were met with hearty cheers such as “Hoo-Ah’s” from the crowd.

To recognize the observance of Veterans Day, which coincided with the 242nd birthday of the United States Marine Corps this year, Theodore mentioned a few notable Johns Hopkins veterans during his remarks.

When the U.S. joined World War I in 1917, 10,000 women nurses went overseas as part of the U.S. Army to be stationed in medical units worldwide. The Johns Hopkins Hospital’s Unit 18 was the first university-center medical unit to go to France, where 65 nurses served in a 1,000-bed American military hospital.

When the U.S. entered the war, women made up less than 5 percent of all physicians. Kate Karpeles, who earned her medical degree from Johns Hopkins, became the first female doctor to sign a contract with the U.S. Army and became a champion of women’s rights after the war.

Also during this time, Harvey Cush­ing, known as the “father of American neurosurgery,” was stationed with the U.S. Army Medical Corps in France, where he experimented with daring procedures such as using magnets to remove fragments of shrapnel from the brain. He took what he learned from caring for wounded veterans, including Sir William Osler’s son, Edward Revere Osler, and brought these lessons back to Baltimore to continue improving patient care.

“No one in my day and age joined the military under force,” said Theodore. “I think that’s what makes today’s veterans so important and so precious. These young men and women are volunteer­ing their everyday lives to enlist to be commissioned within the ranks of those whose names that go throughout eternity.”

Following Theodore’s remarks, the crowd stood to attention as The Johns Hopkins University ROTC Color Guard performed the Retirement of the Colors and David Russell, systems en­gineer for The Johns Hopkins Hospital, performed a solemn rendition of “Taps.”

Luis Alberto Bonilla, a Navy veteran and senior project manager for Facili­ties Design & Construction, thanked everyone for honoring our veterans, say­ing, “Let us walk toward tomorrow still honoring them, by living in the freedom they’ve protected.”